NOVEL NEXT 0038
The twins were walking through the corridors of the second floor. Most of the traps had already been found by the mages team members and either triggered or marked to evade them in the future, though the two were still careful in case they had missed one. Well, more or less. Sarah was mostly lost in thoughts, while her sister seemed less attentive in general and was carefree humming as they advanced deeper into the dungeon on their search for potential edible enemies.
Earlier the scientist had already pressed Sera for a few answers about her adventures in the mansion. For one to get additional context to have any hopes of understanding some of the books in a reasonable time, but also to get clues in regard to usage of the crystals. In the end the explanations of the sword user didn't yield much information. Her focus differed too much from what Sarah would have seen as useful. Well, it wasn't completely useless.
Unless people had a preference of building not-quite-dungeons under their homes, whichever house Sera had invaded probably belonged to some new and powerful force. If they were older, they would have done it in a realm with stronger and more experienced people around. There was also the possibility of them trying to protect a treasure or something similar in a low level ream, however the scientist deemed it as unlikely. System dungeons would offer a much better protection and even though Sera cleared the basement, she couldn't find anything like that. Well, the crystals and core would most likely qualify, but in that case the owner could have just taken the items with them when they left... And Sarah wouldn't judge those items as that hard to come by that there was a need to hide them.
With the mansion being in a prominent position and coincidentally abandoned without other parties or the realm owner raiding it first, it was also likely that it had connections to their summoner. At least when she assumed that all of them were present when she and her sister were summoned... Not that it really mattered now. No one should have seen Sera enter the mansion and even less her exiting, with most people already gone by then thanks to a certain intruder.
And with the realm gone the house should have ceased to exist, so any evidence of her trespassing was gone.
It didn't sit quite right with Sarah that her sister entered other peoples properties again without good reasons like rescuing family members or the elimination of future problems. But she had those discussions often enough and long since given up on attempting to educate the disaster.
Also the basement seemed very similar to this dungeon or maybe dungeons in general. Though it was also true that forming small projectiles was more mana efficient and easier to engrave than complexer spells. For the moment it was impossible for the girl to unearth whatever the reason was behind the design choices.
Maybe creating a dungeon on her own, if she managed to get her hands on a space mage, was an option... Nia could help with that since she was interested in space magic, however in that case Sarah would lose a potential soul mage, which seemed to be much rarer.
The mage dodged another trap she noticed thanks to the markings next to it, most likely made by the dagger of their guide.
However as it was still no lizard-test-subject, Sarah quickly lost interest in it. She still paid enough attention to block any incoming flames with her water rings, now two and a bit bigger, as she had more unused mana, but most of her brain was focused on another task.
Using her sacrifice skill she reduced her health by another few points. Again pain shot through her body. Unlike her sister, she wasn't really used to that sensation. In the end a few unfriendly, uninvited and rowdy visitors couldn't compare to years of suffering during self-defense and combat training. But she had to concentrate on her flow of mana and how the skill changed it, so she suppressed the sensation in her mind and continued on.
Although the pain was distributed throughout her body like when the demigod overtook the First Meadow, it was a different kind of it. Where previously the excess mana had most likely damaged her internal structures, this time its forceful extraction did the job. Her normal mana was still flowing throughout her body, yet minuscule amounts were further squeezed out of her body. At least if she interpreted the kind of pain and her mana sense correctly.
In an attempt to control her skill, she focused it on her left arm and the mage technically succeeded. However while the agony in the rest of her body subsided, it increased even more so in her arm. She hadn't really expected anything else, as the same amount of mana was now taken from a much smaller area, but, being aware of the quickly worsening condition of her limb, she stopped her skill again.
Testing it on herself was possible, but she had to be careful to not actually lose an arm. It wouldn't be a permanent issue, thanks to the healers all around, but the human interaction and money needed would be quite substantial.
Unfortunately she couldn't quite get a feeling for any potential spell circles which may or may not be present, but she started to get a rough idea of how it worked. Especially so, since her gaining the skill was most likely also linked to the mana acquisition feature of her hack for a summoning spell.
She had hoped it would be easier to understand as she had already made a skill by herself, however that was apparently not the case. Not that such small setbacks would stop her. If she would ever run out of ideas, she would simply put it back on her to-do-list and work on a different task until she figured out more ways to approach the subject.
Actually...
Humming her own battle theme, Sera quickly approached the next enemies which had appeared before her. As luck would have it, they were still not the ones the twins were searching for. Why does it always seem impossible to encounter whatever one was searching for?
The elemental fired as usual arrow-like flame projectiles at her. Her sister might have questioned how a flame could have such a form or exist without a medium, or maybe not because she already knew the answer, but for Sera it was a simple and enjoyable battle.
And that fact was not related to her insanity skill.
Probably...
Who wouldn't wish to fight magic shooting entities with a large scythe, like those used in video games and other fictional media?!
Well, yes, her sister. But she was weird anyway! She disliked it when Sera took a look in a seemingly unused warehouse, but then didn't mind to slaughter countless helpless people in the name of science and much more to satisfy her own curiosity. Not that the scythe-wielder was against the killing part, she had the class option of tormentor for a reason, but why was the scientist trying to stop her from enjoying herself, when she was doing whatever she liked in her laboratory?!
Focusing back on the fight, Sera dodged the flames, which had already nearly reached her due to her inattentiveness. Her movements were a combination of those she learned during her idol training and those for actual combat. While they had a certain efficiency and should help her level her idol as well as blade dancer class aside from those centered purely around eliminating an enemy fast, they also made the fight more fun.
She hadn't tried to recreate those battle-scenes from movies, as she was well aware of how impractical many of the moves were, but now with magic and the assistance of enchanted weapons, maybe she could.
Just not jumping around.
Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?
Half lost in thought and the distance to the pair of enemies diminishing more and more, the wolf-golem-thing apparently wasn't planning on letting her come any closer as it quickly crossed the remaining gap and engaged her.
Though just because the golem had attacked her didn't mean that the elemental would stop. The opposite was the case, as it even increased its own bombardment, not looking out for its ally in any way.
Evading the increased barrage of physical and magical attacks, Sera soon noticed why. The wolf was hit, yet not much happened. Some of its spikes broke and the projectiles which were able to reach its body caused a loss of luster on those spots, however all imperfections quickly mended them-selves. It further reinforced her understanding that the golems core was a giant weakness but also its only weakness aside from running out of mana.
Well, further thoughts about this subject could her sister handle. For the warrior it was enough to know where to strike to end its life.
...if it just wasn't that nimble.